Sustainability

GCSE
Design and Technology
EKS-A
How can a designer help change the
world?
 Choice of materials
 Manufacture process
 Planned Disassembly
 Country of production
 Transportation
 Packaging
 What impact dose this have on the
World?
 Climate change
 Warmer sea
 Floods
 Drought
 Polar ice melts
 Higher sea levels
 Reduced raw materials
 Increased global warming
 So how can a Designer help?
They need to consider…
 Social
 Economic
 Environmental
 Moral issues
 Sustainability
 It’s a Balancing Act!
 Designing for sustainability always requires
the designer to make moral judgments.  You
will have to decide between different
solutions which may contradict each other
 Social and Moral
 Social responsibility means ensuring that our own
and other people's quality of life and human rights
are not compromised to fulfil our expectations and
demands.

 Moral responsibility means the choices we make

as consumers and as designer-makers always
have results for other people, both in our country
and elsewhere in the world.
 Economic and Environmental
 Economic responsibility means considering
implications of our actions, including ensuring that
there is an economic benefit both to the region
from which the product came and to the region in
which it is marketed.

 Environmental responsibility means ensuring that

our actions and lifestyle don’t cause the planet’s
resources to be used at unsustainable rates.
 What is Sustainability?
 Sustainability is about human impact on the
environment; from the way we use natural
resources such as water, coal, trees and gas,
through to how we manage the waste from the
production and consumption of goods. The aim is
to lessen our ‘footprint’ on the earth so that, whilst
living our lives in a way that fulfils our needs, we
also leave our world in good shape for generations
to come.
 a) Why is it important?
Facts;
 Human activity is having a huge impact on
changing climates NOW.
 If everyone In the world lived as we do in the UK
now, we would need three planets to sustain us.
 The effects are being felt far more in developing
countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Many
countries are already experiencing prolonged
flooding or drought.
 There will be impacts in Europe within our lifetime
– low fish stocks, rising sea levels, forest fires,
crop failures, flooding, lack of snow, heat and cold-
related deaths.
 Over consumption
 Britain throws away £20 billion worth of
unused food every year- equal to five times
our spending on international aid and
enough to lift 150 million people out of
starvation.
 Wasteful Energy Use
 It takes 5 kilowatt-hours of energy to turn
wood into to glossy magazine. That’s
enough energy to run a low energy lamp for
at least 250 hours. Mobile phone chargers
left plugged in cost £60m per annum and
produce 250,000 tonnes of Co2.
 Design for a Short Life
Facts:
 The average lifespan of a computer in
developed countries is 2 years.
 In Europe people keep a mobile phone for
18 months on average.
 b) Sustainability and Environmental
Issues when Designing and
manufacturing.
 Disassembly
 Material choice
 Country of manufacture
 Level of manufacture
 Recyclable parts
 Transportation costs
 Just in Time manufacture
 c) Recognise and take account of
Social, Economic and Environmental
 Ensuring that our and other people’s quality
of life and human rights are not
compromised to fulfil our expectations and
demands.
 Responsibility in Designing and Making.
 Responsibility in Designing and
Making.
 Does the product improve the quality of life for its
users?
 Is the product appropriate for the society and culture
in which it will be used?
 Could traditional knowledge and skills be lost?
 Does the product have a positive or negative impact?
 Does the product meet the needs of people today
without limiting the ability of future generations to
meet their needs satisfactory?
 Does the making of the product infringe any basic
human rights, e.g. fair pay, decent working
conditions?
 d) Six R’s of Sustainability
 Re-Think: 
We should re-think our current lifestyles and question whether we can continue
to live the way we do now in terms of energy use and products we buy.
 Re-Use: 
Many products are so plentiful we throw them away without any thought after
using them. Re-using products or parts of products can often use less energy
than recycling them.
 Recycle:
Recycling can help prevent environmental damage by minimising the amount of
material and energy used during production and processing by taking existing
product waste and re-processing the material for use in new products.
 Repair:
We should choose products that can be repaired when a part breaks and not
simply the whole product thrown away and then a replacement purchased.
 Reduce:
Manufacturers should look at reducing the amount of material and energy used
during a product's life cycle.
 Refuse:
We should consider refusing to buy or use certain products. Food is said to be
the largest single factor affecting our eco-footprint. Packaging, processing and
transport use huge amounts of energy and the discarded packaging creates
massive waste.
e) Sustainability makes total impact!
 understand that sustainable designing is
more than using recycled or recyclable
materials to manufacture their products. It is
about the total impact that the process of
designing and making has on the
environment.
 The “product life cycle” must be considered
as part of the design and manufacturing
process.
f) Life Cycle Analysis
 Activity
 Carry out a "Life Cycle Analysis" to
determine the environmental impact of a
product. (E.g. Mobile phones, digital
cameras, ipods….)

Points to consider… The Six R’s!

Re-Think Reuse Recycle
Repair Reduce Refuse
 The End

Think!